Forgotten Marriage

Married. Finn Sorensen had a wife. And apparently she was living in Australia. What a god-awful mess. Finn swirled the untouched bourbon and ice around in his glass, ignoring the flight attendant's flirtatious smile as she walked down the darkened isle. This mystery wife had also inherited a ten percent controlling share of his father Nikolai's jewelry empire. That is, if he found the missing codicil. If not, Danish law decreed the controlling share go to his father's current wife. Marlene, his selfish, image-obsessed, cold-hearted stepmother who'd hold on to those shares from beyond the grave if she could. Focusing his attention out the window of the first-class section, he glared into pitch blackness, sixty thousand feet above the earth. His life had been one surreal revelation after another since that December car crash had put his father in intensive care and wiped out much of Finn's memory. From various photos and letters, he'd uncovered scant details--he'd met his wife last year in Sydney,Australia. Love at first sight, his cousin Louisa had recalled, starry-eyed. And for every glowing avowal of love, his stepmother had produced the flipside.Gold digger. Poor Irish immigrant. Secretive, sullen, argumentative. His mouth thinned. Marlene's educated lilt had been heavy on the insults and light on the details. Yet when he'd called her on it, she refused to elaborate. "She ran out on you, Finn. You've never dwelt on the past, so forget about her and focus on the company." How could he focus when he couldn't remember? That damned tingling, like ants crawling over his skin, started up at the base of his spine. The undeniable sensation of half truths chewed and gnawed until a thin sheen of sweat broke out on his brow. He swiped it away and took a shuddering breath. Marlene had been civil enough...up until the day his father had died. Then she'd stuck her claws right in, undermining his ability to run the company, swaying many of the board to vote her way. Now she was demanding an immediate settlement of his father's estate. His visit to the head office in Copenhagen had only produced more questions. Despite Nikolai's deathbed confession of a codicil, he was still missing any hard evidence. The company lawyers had no record of it, nor was there anything in Nikolai's private papers. And Finn couldn't remember. He knew one thing--doing nothing meant he'd lose the SOslash;rensen legacy, his father's entire reason for living and breathing. So he'd put his case to a sympathetic judge and received a two-month stay on the execution. And now he was chasing a long shot, flying twenty-six hours from Copenhagen to Sydney in hopes of triggering his memory and uncovering the truth. Marlene's deceit continued to burn in his gut like a newly stoked flame. Until he knew more, until he could trust Ally--ifhe could--he'd keep the details of his father's bequest to himself. And when hedidfind that codicil, he'd offer her a good price. A win-win situation. Yet, his conscience niggled, he must have trusted her once--he'd proposed. She had accepted. There must have been something between them... Or Marlene could be right. There was only one way to find out. Finn pressed a hand to his temple, rubbed at the throb that was slowing building momentum behind his eyes and whispered, "For helve,Father, what on earth were you thinking?" The phone. The soft trill broke through Ally McKnight's foggy but promising dream, and with a groan she groped. After knocking over a book, a bag of M&M's and a notepad on the nightstand, she finally found the receiver. "For the last time, Tony, it's late," she muttered, keeping her eyes firmly shut as she snuggled back under the sheets. "I've been working all night and I don't need you checking up on me everyRoe, Paula is the author of 'Forgotten Marriage ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373768240 and ISBN 0373768249.